Washington (AFP)
Washington on Friday announced financial sanctions against three North Korean entities accused of cyber-attacks that reached key infrastructure like British hospitals in 2017 or the Central Bank of Bangladesh in 2016.
The sanctions target three computer-controlled hacking groups "controlled by the North Korean government" and known in the world of the computer security industry, the US Treasury said in a statement. This is Lazarus Group, Bluenoroff and Andariel involved, according to Washington, in the introduction of viruses or embezzlement.
"The Treasury is acting against North Korean hacking groups that have carried out attacks to support illegal weapons and missile programs," said the Treasury Assistant in charge of combating the financing of terrorism, Sigal Mandelker.
Lazarus Group was created by the North Korean government in 2007 within what is called the "Third Office of Technical Supervision", an entity responsible for cyberspace operations in the country and already blacklisted by the UN in 2016 says the Treasury.
This group was involved in the malicious attack by the WannaCry 2.0 virus which affected the United States, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom in particular.
Some 300,000 computers worldwide had been paralyzed.
The most dramatic incident had affected the computer system of British health services, infecting the computers of one-third of the country's secondary care hospitals. The destabilization of this computer network had cost $ 112 million.
Two subgroups belonging to Lazarus, Bluenoroff and Andariel have also been blacklisted for sanctions that freeze their potential holdings in the US and ban them from the international financial system.
According to Washington, Bluenoroff was created by the North Korean government to generate revenue against the grip of international sanctions against Pyongyang. Spotted by cyber security firms in 2014, he has tried to steal more than $ 1.1 billion from financial institutions in many countries, from Mexico to Pakistan to Turkey, Chile and the United States. Vietnam.
His most famous attack was that of the Central Bank of Bangladesh with the New York Fed where $ 80 million had been stolen.
Bluenoroff and Lazarus Group had also attempted to transfer up to $ 851 million through an infiltration of the SWIFT international transfer system but had been spotted because of a typo, the Treasury said.
Another group known as Andariel, identified in 2015, has focused its attacks on the government and infrastructure of South Korea. He managed to get into cash machines where he stole personal information then sold on the black market. Andariel is also known for having developed a unique software capable of hijacking online poker games.
© 2019 AFP